At the Guggenheim, an Orb by Otto Piene Ascends

Video

Behind the scenes at the installation of Otto Piene’s “White Balloon” at the Guggenheim Museum.Published OnNov. 4, 2014

By Brooke Bobb

Nov. 4, 2014

The imposing rotunda inside the Guggenheim museum in New York has just become a lot more striking thanks to Otto Piene’s “White Balloon” installation, on display for only three days. Specially installed to coincide with this year’s Guggenheim International Gala, sponsored by Christian Dior, it dovetails with a longer exhibition: the first large-scale survey in an American museum of Zero, the experimental, post-World War II group. “Zero: Countdown to Tomorrow, 1950s-60s” presents a breadth of work by more than 30 artists from 10 countries around the world, including some of the movement’s founders: Piene, Gunther Ueker, Heinz Mack and Yves Klein.

The balloon, designed by Piene before he passed away this summer at the age of 86, has a diameter of 16 feet and serves as a screen for digital copies of hand-painted slides that reinterpret Piene’s 1966-67 series, “Proliferation of the Sun.” While the entire exhibition took about two years to produce, “White Balloon” was executed in the span of a few days — and long nights, to make sure the projection angles were right. Here, T and the house of Dior offer an exclusive look at the making of Piene’s artwork. The soundtrack for the video comes from the band The XX, who will perform at the International Gala’s preparty tomorrow, Nov. 5, ahead of the main event on Thursday.

“Zero: Countdown to Tomorrow, 1950s-60s” is on view at the Guggenheim through Jan. 7, 2015. The Guggenheim International Gala will take place this Thursday, Nov. 6, with the Young Collectors Council preparty to take place tomorrow, Nov. 5. guggenheim.org.